


Emotional Consequences of Miscommunication

by dearzoemurphy



Series: Studies in Complex Emotions and Modern Relationships [2]
Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Britta Perry, Episode: s06e08 Intro to Recycled Cinema, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Multi, Polyamorous Britta Perry, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:41:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26625364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearzoemurphy/pseuds/dearzoemurphy
Summary: “Okay. I want to make sure that Frankie’s personal biases won’t greatly affect the directorial process,” Abed replied.“What biases? I am as impartial of a third party as there can be-”“I know that you’ve been seeing Britta. In the romantic sense of the phrase. I know that Jeff has also been seeing her, so the two of you have become extremely close through spending more time together. I want to ensure that you’re not trying to rush through takes in order to avoid hurting their feelings,” he said matter-of-factly.Abed reveals that Britta has been seeing Jeff and Frankie during the filming of his movie. This, of course, has some unintended consequences. Set during Intro to Recycled Cinema. Sequel to Explorations in Rekindled Romance and Self-Discovery, can probably be read on its own.
Relationships: Abed Nadir & Britta Perry, Britta Perry/Jeff Winger, Frankie Dart/Britta Perry, Frankie Dart/Britta Perry/Jeff Winger
Series: Studies in Complex Emotions and Modern Relationships [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1936927
Comments: 8
Kudos: 13





	Emotional Consequences of Miscommunication

**Author's Note:**

> I finally had an idea on how to continue this universe!! yay!!! I love these fools and I love this ship and I swear I'll build this tag up the best that I can. hope you all enjoy!! <3

“Just a couple of adjustments,” Abed said, waving his arms to get Jeff and Britta’s attention.

“I think they did a great job during that take,” Frankie said, smiling slyly at the pair, “but you can have two.”

Jeff and Britta beamed, the blonde blowing Frankie a little kiss.

“Alright, can I clear something up before I make my adjustments?”

“Sure, Abed. Just make it quick,” Jeff said, attempting to be accommodating, but ultimately coming off as impatient.

“Okay. I want to make sure that Frankie’s personal biases won’t greatly affect the directorial process,” he replied.

“What biases? I am as impartial of a third party as there can be-”

“I know that you’ve been seeing Britta. In the romantic sense of the phrase. I know that Jeff has also been seeing her, so the two of you have become extremely close through spending more time together. I want to ensure that you’re not trying to rush through takes in order to avoid hurting their feelings,” Abed said matter-of-factly.

The trio stood in stunned silence for a moment, the rest of the cast and crew still bustling around them. They exchanged several nervous glances before Frankie and Britta’s gazes landed on Jeff, prompting him to step forward and clear his throat.

“What…what makes you say that?” he croaked.

“What Jeff meant to say is that we’re just trying to keep production moving along so that we can get this movie done in time to capitalize on Chang’s 15 seconds of fame,” Frankie corrected, glaring at him for how suspicious his statement had been.

“What evidence do you even have for such a baseless accusation?” Britta added, Frankie almost facepalming at how the question undid everything she had just done.

“Britta, it’s not difficult to ascertain. For almost a month, you’ve been constantly asking about when Annie and I will be out of the apartment. Whenever we’re not going out, you do. The three of you exchange extremely obvious glances and not-so-subtle innuendos during committee meetings. I’ve seen you kiss both Jeff and Frankie goodbye behind that one pillar outside the library where you think no one can see you. Do I need to go on?” Abed asked.

His observations led to another stunned silence, the trio now more unsure than ever how to proceed. The sound of Annie snickering from behind the set’s prop doors didn’t help.

“I thought we were really being sly…” Britta mumbled.

“Well, I promise not to let my biases get in the way of my work. My wish to do as few takes as possible is purely motivated by the need to have this film completed in a timely fashion,” Frankie said softly, still somewhat in shock. Jeff nodded, keeping his gaze locked firmly on the ground.

Abed gave a wry smile, clearly pleased to have absolute confirmation of his hypothesis. “Alright. In that case, I want you guys to make sure that you move when the ship gets hit…”

\---

“Hey, Frankie. How are you doing?” Britta whispered, leaning over the drums that the brunette was stationed behind.

“Look at what’s on my head, Britta. I’m doing as well as I can be,” she replied, keeping a straight face as she pointed to the plastic tube-adorned headpiece that had been put on her.

The blonde gave a light chuckle, quickly cutting herself off when Frankie glared at her sternly. “Okay. Noted. I meant more in regards to Abed announcing to the world that we’ve been…seeing each other,” she clarified.

“To be honest, I haven’t had the time, nor the energy, to put much thought into what it means yet,” Frankie admitted, “Though it’s not like it was entirely unexpected. It was only a matter of time before someone said something.”

“So our relationship being public isn’t a big deal to you?” Britta asked timidly.

Frankie’s expression softened as she reached out to hold the side of Britta’s face. “No, of course not! I know that this is new territory, but the only reason we hadn’t gone public yet was pure convenience. I don’t mind navigating this territory with you and Jeff,” she said.

Britta gave an almost radiant smile. “That’s good to hear,” she said, leaning into Frankie’s touch, “I don’t think Jeff is taking it as well.”

“What makes you say that?”

“He stayed behind to talk to Abed as we were changing sets and seemed really upset. I asked him if everything was okay once he got over here and he didn’t want to talk to me about it,” Britta said.

“Oh, sweetie, I’m sure everything is fine. We’re all just under a lot of stress with this filming schedule,” Frankie said, rubbing her thumb along Britta’s face.

The blonde nodded. “I know. I’m just-”

“Britta! I need you to get off the set, we’re about to start filming,” Abed called from across the room.

“Alright! I’m going!” she called back, giving Frankie’s hand a squeeze before darting around the drums to hide behind a set piece.

“We’ll sort this out later, I promise,” Frankie whispered, Britta smiling weakly in return.

\---

The rest of the movie was filmed in such a short amount of time that none of the group had any time to process what was happening, the amount of action stuffed into a few short hours being almost dizzying. Britta let herself get lost in her under-developed character and barely gave any thought to her current real life predicament. Jeff and Frankie were the same way, both too exhausted to discuss the day’s events any further and each only giving her a quick kiss goodbye before they all went home for the night. The movie producer was scheduled to be at the school to watch Abed’s cut of the film bright and early the next morning, so they needed all the sleep that they could get.

Britta went back to apartment 303 and practically crashed on her daybed, only grunting a ‘good night’ to Annie. Right as she finished setting her alarm and was about to let her eyes drift shut, she was interrupted by the sound of footsteps creeping towards her bed.

“Hello?” she whispered into the dark.

“I’m sorry about earlier.”

Britta turned over to see Abed’s silhouette and propped herself up ever so slightly. “Sorry about what?”

“Exposing your relationship with Jeff and Frankie. I didn’t think through the consequences of doing so,” Abed elaborated.

“Oh, it’s fine. No problem,” Britta said, waving her hand.

“No, it’s not fine. I didn’t let you go public on your own terms,” he insisted, “It’s not fair that I took that away from you all.”

Britta hummed. “Okay, maybe it’s not entirely fine. But don’t worry about it too much, we were going to tell you all sometime soon.”

Abed nodded, starting to turn away. “Alright, well-”

“What did Jeff say to you after that happened? Was everything…okay?”

“He was talking about the movie. Something about taking my shirt off and Chris Pratt,” Abed answered.

“Huh. Interesting…” Britta muttered.

“He didn’t say anything about you, if that’s what you were wondering. He was clearly upset about the movie.”

“Okay. Thanks for telling me, Abed. And thanks for the apology,” she said, reaching out into the dark in search of one of his hands. She found one after a moment and squeezed it gently.

He squeezed back. “Of course. I would stay and talk longer, but I have to finish editing the movie.”

“That’s alright. Good luck with that.”

Through the cover of darkness, Britta couldn’t see Abed’s gentle smile as he pulled his hand away from hers. “Thanks. I need all the luck I can get.”

\---

“Is he doing a bit?” Britta asked incredulously.

“That’s a long bit,” Annie said, the group all gazing in the direction Jeff had run off in.

“Oh, he’s serious. I mean, let’s face it, it’s pretty obvious when he’s acting,” Elroy observed.

“I’ll go talk to him,” Abed offered, practically leaping up from his seat, “I’m certain that he’s headed for the frisbee room,” he added before running after their friend.

Britta sighed and shook her head, running around the group to Frankie on the other side.

“Do you think he’s okay?” she asked.

Frankie gave her a gentle, unsure smile and reached out to pull Britta close to her chest. “Something’s definitely going on. But he will be okay. The movie’s almost wrapped up, after all.”

“Yeah, but…I don’t think it’s just the movie. And I don’t think it’s just yesterday anymore, either,” Britta said softly.

“You really think so?”

“Mhm. Last time he was like this, he took an axe to our table. And there was a lot going on then,” she said, chuckling nervously.

Frankie pressed a kiss to Britta’s temple before pulling back to look at her. “You’ll have to tell me the full story sometime,” she said lightly.

Britta cracked a smile. “I will. I hope Abed can help talk him down before we reach that point again…”

“Do you want to go join them?”

“Hm?”

“Go. Talk to Jeff. I know you want to. And I know you can help,” Frankie said, squeezing Britta’s arm before letting her go.

Britta smiled, leaning forward to peck her on the cheek. “Okay. I’ll be right back, hopefully,” she said as she darted off, turning around to add, “And hopefully without an axe, but I make no promises.”

\---

“Jeff? Abed? Jeff, Abed, are you in here?”

Britta timidly knocked on the outside of the slide leading into the frisbee-flooded room. No response. She sighed, swinging herself down onto the slide and into the pile of plastic disks.

“Britta?” Jeff called out. She stood up and spotted him and Abed across the room, beginning to trudge through the frisbees to join them.

“I’ll give you two a moment. Meet me outside when you’re ready,” Abed said, Jeff clapping him on the shoulder before he turned to fight his way out of the room.

Britta emerged onto the level part of the ground, started to slowly stroll towards Jeff.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“So…”

“Why did Abed announcing that we were seeing each other upset you so much?” Britta rushed out.

Jeff blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Agh, I didn’t mean to say that first. I meant to ask how you were and if you were okay…”

“Britta, why did you think that I was upset about that?”

She sighed. “Well…you wanted to keep our relationship a secret during sophomore year and then we kept this a secret for a while and then you got really upset yesterday,” Britta said, words practically rushing out of her mouth, “and I don’t know! I thought…I thought that this might be the end of this, just like it was the first time. I thought that you might still be ashamed of me.”

Jeff’s face morphed into an expression of shock and horror. “Ashamed of you? Why on Earth would I be ashamed of you?!”

“I don’t know! Why else would you want to keep the fact that you’re dating me a secret?” Britta yelled.

“I thought you wanted to keep things a secret until you were ready to explain the situation to people!”

“I did! But I didn’t get as upset as you did when Abed exposed us, I wanted to tell them soon anyway!”

“I wasn’t upset about that! I was upset about a lot of other things, I didn’t have the mental or emotional capacity to put much thought into it.”

Britta scoffed. “Like what?”

Jeff took a deep breath. “Like…the fact that Chang can use this ham commercial thing as his ticket out of here. The fact that all of you will get out of here,” he said, voice cracking. “and the fact that, despite the unpredictability of life, I know for certain that I never will.”

“Oh,” Britta paused to process what he had said, “Jeff…we’re not going anywhere. And if what you want is to get out of here, you can,” she said. She took a small step towards him, reaching out with both hands.

“Britta…you know that Annie and Abed aren’t going to hang around here another year,” his voice cracked again, “Pretty soon, we’re going to be the only ones left.”

Britta was stunned into silence. She opened her mouth, but no words could come out for what felt like an eternity.

“Did they say something to you? About that?”

“They don’t have to. They’ve been here for six years and they still have their whole lives in front of them! Abed will go make blockbuster movies and Annie will become a senator and…even you will probably leave one day,” Jeff elaborated. He was visibly near tears by his last sentence.

“Jeff,” Britta breathed, closing the distance between them and wrapping her arms around him, “I’d never leave you. Not if you didn’t want to be left.”

“But then I’d feel guilty about holding you back,” he whispered, his breath a hot chill on Britta’s neck.

“You could leave with me. And Frankie. One day, whenever we’re ready,” she said. They held each other in silence for a moment, Britta wishing for him to say something, anything, Jeff fighting back a tidal wave of tears.

“I could. And that’s…that’s a nice idea. I just figured that you and Frankie would be sick of me by the time you’re able to get out,” he said.

Britta felt a flash of something painful in her stomach. Grief, maybe.

“Jeffery Tobias Winger, if I haven’t gotten sick of you after six years of Greendale’s shit, I can guarantee that I never, ever will get sick of you,” she said, squeezing him even tighter, “and Frankie doesn’t say it a lot, but she adores you.”

Jeff pulled back far enough to be able to look her in the eye, revealing the gentle tracks of tears running down his face. “Promise?”

“I promise,” Britta said, nodding and running her thumb along the outside of his arm.

He let out a breath that he hadn’t even realized he was holding. “Okay,” he paused, “You know, I’ve never been ashamed of you. I’ve made mistakes when it comes to you, sure. Sophomore year was so long ago, but now? I should have asked you and Frankie how you were feeling instead of assuming that you wanted to continue keeping things a secret just because that’s what you wanted at first. I’m really, really sorry if I made you feel insecure. That’s the last thing I want. I don’t want to make you feel like that ever again.”

Britta’s face softened. “Thanks. I should have realized that you were going through something and offered my support instead of coming up with a reason to be mad at you,” she said, burying her head into his chest.

Jeff squeezed her even tighter. “It’s okay. We’re all going through something right now.”

“I’m going to do everything I can to make sure we get through this together. With Frankie, too. We’ll make the most of these next few months and deal with the punches as they’re thrown,” Britta affirmed.

“Thank you. You’re the best, you know that, right?” Jeff said, the whisper of a chuckle accentuating his last sentence.

“I do,” Britta said, happily sighing as he pressed his lips to the top of her head.

\---

The euphoria of watching something that the group had come together and made could barely be dampened when afterwards, they discovered that their work had been all for not.

“I don’t have a good feeling about Chang staying bankable. Did you see this news story?” Annie asked, holding out her phone.

Elroy took it and read, his expression morphing into one of shock. “I’ll never look at a hot air balloon in the same way again. Or James Franco’s ball,” he said, turning the phone around for all to see.

The group cringed, letting out various exclamations of shock and horror.

“I’ll tell you what I do have a good feeling about. Bring it in,” Jeff said, extending his arms out towards his friends.

Britta tucked herself against his side, wrapping her arms around his and the Dean’s waist as they all slotted together like puzzle pieces. Through 'aww's and various exclamations of affection, they closed the circle, holding onto each other as tightly as they could. 

As they started chanting “yooba dooba”, Jeff leaned down to whisper in Britta’s ear. “We should grab Frankie and find a quiet place to talk.”

She nodded. “Of course. Meet in the courtyard in five minutes?”

He nodded back as the group dispersed, Britta moving over to Frankie to inform her of the plan. They said their goodbyes to the rest of the group and one by one, slipped out the side door beside the vending machines.

Jeff was the last one out, walking up to the girls as Britta was leaning her head on Frankie’s shoulder and clutching one of her arms.

“So…to cut right to the chase, it’s recently come to my attention that I’ve been going through some things,” he opened.

“What an astute observation,” Britta said playfully, prompting a lighthearted glare from Jeff.

“Ha ha. But really, I’ve been processing the fact that things around here are going to change sometime in the future. And I’ve not been doing a great job of that. I told Britta this already, but Chang landing the ham commercial just…it made me realize that everyone seems to have a way out of here. Except for me,” he continued.

“Oh, Jeff, you can always make a way out,” Frankie said, “and we would be happy to help.”

He smiled gently. “Thanks. Britta told me that yesterday, too.”

“Must mean it’s true if Frankie’s saying it,” the blonde said with a playful smile.

Jeff smiled back, reaching out to take both women’s hands. “It must,” he paused to admire each of them for a moment before continuing, “My point is that all of that talk about the future made me realize…we should talk about ours. I know we’ve been avoiding serious conversations and labels and telling people because everything was going so well. I know that I didn’t want the bubble to burst, so I didn’t want to be the first to bring anything up. But I think it’s about time we become boyfriend-girlfriend-girlfriend official. If that’s what you guys want as well.”

A huge grin spread across Britta’s face. “I would like that. I would like that a lot,” she confirmed.

“I would too. I couldn’t imagine any better people to call my girlfriend and my girlfriend’s boyfriend,” Frankie said, smiling at both of them.

Jeff moved to put his arms around both Britta and Frankie, the blonde enthusiastically springing forward, her new girlfriend waiting until Britta was settled before embracing both her and Jeff.

“In a way, it’s kind of comforting to know that our friends saw this coming,” Jeff said, rubbing their backs and resting his head on top of Frankie’s, “and that we don’t have to worry about them judging us.”

“Probably because this is the healthiest relationship they’ve ever seen either of us in…counting our previous relationship with each other,” Britta said sheepishly.

“You poor things,” Frankie hummed, “Though to be fair, the same is probably true for me as well.”

“Well, I’m glad that none of that really matters. Because we have each other now, right?” Britta said.

“At the risk of exhausting the amount of sentimentality I have set aside for this month, you’re right,” Jeff said, planting a kiss on her forehead as the trio pulled apart.

“Right,” Frankie affirmed.

Britta smiled, overcome with a swell of overwhelming joy. “You know, I don’t say this often, but I have a good feeling about this. A really, really good feeling,” she said.

Jeff and Frankie exchanged smiles before turning back to Britta, Frankie dropping a kiss on their girlfriend’s temple.

“Us too, Britta. Us too.”

**Author's Note:**

> as always, please leave any thoughts/opinions/etc. you may have in the comments down below!! 
> 
> I have another ficlet written already fro this universe that I'll likely post tomorrow, and going forward, I'll add on whenever inspiration strikes. I'm really, really happy to kind of have a plan on where I want to take this. I hope you all are doing as well, sending much love and many well wishes your ways!! <3


End file.
